Από άρθρο του JAMA:
Types and Origins of Diagnostic Errors in Primary Care Settings
Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH; Traber Davis Giardina, MA, MSW; Ashley N. D. Meyer, PhD; Samuel N. Forjuoh, MD, MPH, DrPH; Michael D. Reis, MD; Eric J. Thomas, MD, MPH
JAMA Intern Med. 2013;():1-8. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2777
Importance Diagnostic errors are an understudied aspect of ambulatory patient safety.
Objectives To determine the types of diseases missed and the diagnostic processes involved in cases of confirmed diagnostic errors in primary care settings and to determine whether record reviews could shed light on potential contributory factors to inform future interventions.
Design We reviewed medical records of diagnostic errors detected at 2 sites through electronic health record–based triggers. Triggers were based on patterns of patients' unexpected return visits after an initial primary care index visit.
Setting A large urban Veterans Affairs facility and a large integrated private health care system.
Participants Our study focused on 190 unique instances of diagnostic errors detected in primary care visits between October 1, 2006, and September 30, 2007.
Main Outcome Measures Through medical record reviews, we collected data on presenting symptoms at the index visit, types of diagnoses missed, process breakdowns, potential contributory factors, and potential for harm from errors.
Results In 190 cases, a total of 68 unique diagnoses were missed. Most missed diagnoses were common conditions in primary care, with pneumonia (6.7%), decompensated congestive heart failure (5.7%), acute renal failure (5.3%), cancer (primary) (5.3%), and urinary tract infection or pyelonephritis (4.8%) being most common. Process breakdowns most frequently involved the patient-practitioner clinical encounter (78.9%) but were also related to referrals (19.5%), patient-related factors (16.3%), follow-up and tracking of diagnostic information (14.7%), and performance and interpretation of diagnostic tests (13.7%). A total of 43.7% of cases involved more than one of these processes. Patient-practitioner encounter breakdowns were primarily related to problems with history-taking (56.3%), examination (47.4%), and/or ordering diagnostic tests for further workup (57.4%). Most errors were associated with potential for moderate to severe harm.
Conclusions and Relevance Diagnostic errors identified in our study involved a large variety of common diseases and had significant potential for harm. Most errors were related to process breakdowns in the patient-practitioner clinical encounter. Preventive interventions should target common contributory factors across diagnoses, especially those that involve data gathering and synthesis in the patient-practitioner encounter.
Primary care practitioners (PCPs) manage a wide range of increasingly complex and severe conditions through one or more relatively brief encounters. Thus, it is not surprising that the primary care setting is vulnerable to medical errors.1- 6 Diagnostic errors (missed, delayed, or wrong diagnoses)7 are of increasing concern in this setting.8- 14 However, data about the most frequent misdiagnosed conditions are scarce, and little is known about which diagnostic processes are most vulnerable to breakdown. Most current data about diagnostic errors in primary care are derived from studies of malpractice claims or self-report surveys.10,15- 17 These methods introduce significant biases that limit the generalizability of findings to routine clinical practice. A recent report by the American Medical Association18- 19 recommends that efforts be made to “dramatically” strengthen the research base for outpatient safety, especially in the area of outpatient diagnostic errors. Understanding the circumstances in which these errors occur in typical practice is a necessary step toward generating preventive strategies.
In prior studies, we used a set of electronic health record (EHR)–based triggers (automated database queries) to identify primary care visits that were likely to be associated with diagnostic error.20 Our triggers were composed of algorithms to detect unusual patterns of care, namely, unplanned hospitalizations, return visits, or emergency department visits within a short time after an initial primary care encounter. Physicians performed record reviews of triggered visits and nontriggered control visits to identify diagnostic errors. Our primary objectives in the present study were to determine the types of diseases missed and the diagnostic processes involved in cases of confirmed diagnostic errors in primary care settings. This exploration could advance knowledge about conditions that are vulnerable to being missed in primary care and help prioritize error prevention strategies. Our secondary objective was to determine whether record reviews could shed light on potential contributory factors to inform future interventions.